New York State Senate Deputy Majority Leader Thomas Libous, of Binghamton, has promised to keep a moratorium on hydraulic fracking from making it to the Senate floor for a vote.

Libous, who is from a region on the Marcellus Shale, is a strong supporter of fracking. His comment came on the heels of the State Assembly’s passing of a bill prohibiting Marcellus drilling until May 2015. Libous is looking to block a bill introduced by Senator David Carlucci, of Clarkstown. State Republicans have argued that fracking is beneficial to the economy and a safe way to obtain natural gas, while Democrats say that not enough is understood about the practice. Governor Andrew Cuomo has taken no official position on the issue as of yet.